What is Self Esteem Therapy?
Self-esteem – sometimes called self worth – is the degree to which we feel confident about our outward appearance, our intelligence, personality or the ability to introspectively respect oneself. There are many causes for low self-esteem, from abuse, to bullying or even mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression. There isn’t one cause for low self esteem, so there isn’t one solution to the problem that is right for everyone.
While positive reinforcement during the developing years is the strongest marker for positive self worth later on in life, it’s not possible to go back and reproduce the years in which each of us were developing. As such, a combination of therapies and prescription drugs is often the best course of action, but only your therapist will know the correct way to treat this condition in your specific circumstance.
Counseling For Low Self Esteem
The following symptoms are great candidates for self esteem therapy:
- A feeling of worthlessness or that your life is meaningless
- Feeling unloved or generally unwanted
- Being overwhelmed with negative thoughts, emotions or fear
- Being drawn to destructive relationships both romantic and platonic
- Distorted view of self and others
- Feeling incompetent or otherwise unrealistic about your abilities
Methods Used in Self Esteem Therapy
Since many have been struggling with self-esteem issues from early childhood until the present, it’s often necessary to seek therapy for this condition as it’s one that most people aren’t often able to treat on their own, and left untreated, this could lead to serious mental health issues and even self-harm.
Having a supportive and caring therapist to guide you to a more realistic sense of self, as well as to outline the positives to focus on is key in helping to overcome the grip that low self worth, or self esteem can have on a person.
The therapy to treat these sorts of self worth issues is often coined “person-centered” or “person-centric,” meaning that you work from the inside out. This form of cognitive behavioral therapy is intended to monitor negative self-belief, doubt and anxiety pertaining to overall sense of self-esteem in order to help you to deal with the feelings and recognize the causes.
Once you recognize things that trigger low self esteem, such as the way you look in a bathing suit, or how you feel when walking by large groups of people that you always had assumed were talking about you, you can begin to reassure yourself that your limits are self imposed that the trapped feeling that most with self esteem issues regularly faced can be overcome with a simple pause to evaluate the situation, and some positive thought. Taking a new and objective view of oneself, and the situation you’re in is the key to overcome the powerful psycho-dynamic that is low self-esteem.